Many ICs are made up of millions of interconnected devices, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, and diodes, on a single chip of semiconductor substrate. CMOS circuits and fabrication technology are commonly used in complex ICs. CMOS circuits use PMOS and NMOS devices to implement functions such as logic.
Field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”) are a type of configurable logic device that often incorporate CMOS techniques in some functional blocks of the FPGA, such as logic blocks, and incorporate other techniques, such as NMOS techniques, in other functional blocks, such as interconnect blocks. An interconnect block is basically a matrix of user-selectable switches that connect circuits and nodes of other portions of the FPGA together, or connect circuits and nodes of FPGA to external pins. The interconnect and logic blocks allow the FPGA to be configured into a variety of circuits to perform user-specified operations. NMOS pass gates in interconnect circuits offer high-speed switching operation at the expense of relatively high leakage current (power draw), and draw significant current even in user standby mode.
Interconnect circuits that offer low standby current draw while providing sufficiently high operational switching speed are desirable.